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Straight Life
"Straight Life" is the fifth episode of the first season and the fifth overall episode of the HBO series Oz. Theme The theme and narration of the episode centers on the subject of Drugs. Drug usage increases in the prison and the staff makes efforts to stop the epidemic. Summary The drug epidemic grows as the efforts of the staff fail to control it. Schibetta sides with The Homeboys and offers them a deal, only to find out that one of them is not who he says he is and so plugs him up. Diane Whittlesey meets an old friend and joins him in smuggling cigarettes to make ends meet. Said is diagnosed with hypertension but refuses to take his medication. An anonymous tip leads to one of the officers getting arrested for smuggling drugs into Oz. McManus and Sister Pete find out that Beecher has found a new addiction to kill his pain; Sister Pete tries to get him into counselling but with no luck. Schillinger decides to give him a makeover. Plot Narrations Floods. You know how you always hear about them people in Iowa or Missouri or wherever, how some big river overflows? The fucking water keeps pouring over its riverbanks, out of control, taking out farms and towns and everything in it's path. Everybody tries to stop it, but nobody can. Everybody's lives are wiped out. Completely destroyed. And the fucking river, it don't give a shit. It just keeps rising. Year after year after fucked up year. My question is, are them heads in the Midwest whacked out or what? This one joker I seen on TV, his home had been washed away 4 times. 4 fucking times. Why don't he just leave? Why don't he jump in that pickup and drive to higher ground? Or is he like us in Oz? There ain't no higher ground. Tits. That's what we call drugs. 60% of the violence in prison is due to tits. Either people not paying their debts, or people trying to control the traffic. (laughs) The traffic. Here in Oz, the last few days, the traffic has been bumper-to-bumper. Prisoner number 94P442, Ronald Poklewaldt. Convicted March 8, '94. Arson in the second degree. Sentence: 25 years, up for parole in 10. Secrets. We all got secrets. Mostly our secrets are tied to our addictions, our obsessions. You like that bourbon too much? You get off eating chicks with dicks? You gotta do it in hiding. You say you somebody but you really somebody else. Only things that matter to us most, do we keep our secrets? And sometimes, those secrets will kill you. I don't have to tell you, drugs ain't the only things to get addicted to. Some people mainline their work, some people... snort ESPN. Some people needle-pop gambling. There are those that shoot up junk foods, fine wines, Cohibas, baby. Some people get hooked on love. And like any fiend on the street, you always need another bump. Just one more bump, man! Just one more bump! Prisoner number 97R518, Scott Ross. Convicted June 4, '97. Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Third conviction. Sentence: life without parole. 3 strikes, sucker! Not all drugs are recreational. Some are benign, or supposedly benign. You take a drug, right? The chemicals, they rush through your body, rush through your brain. And the sensations, you want the sensations again and again and again, but let me tell you, you can also get addicted to grief, to guilt, to hate. Because when you feel dead inside, even bad sensations make you feel like you're alive! Prisoner number 45M242, Whitney Munson. Convicted March 7, '45. Murder in the first degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance. Sentence: 110 years, up for parole in 60. I ain't saying drugs are good, but when your past is past and your present sucks, your future holds nothing but broken promises and dead dreams, the drugs; they kill the pain. Listen up, America. You ain't never gonna get rid of drugs, until you cure pain. Deceased *'Paul Markstrom: '''Hanged in the basketball gym by 'Simon Adebisi. *'''Unnamed prostitute (flashback): Strangled accidentally by Whitney Munson. Crime Flashbacks *'Ronald Poklewaldt: '''Imprisoned for arson in the first degree. *'Scott Ross: Imprisoned for possession of controlled substance with intent to distribute. (3rd conviction) *Whitney Munson: '''Imprisoned for murder in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Production Transcript Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 episodes